Belt Runner
by M K Stern
Summary: Someone has to challenge Jania's high score.


This fic is homage to my favorite Jania prospective romance. It was written a while ago, so bear with me if it has continuity issues.

Belt Runner

Lando's Folly: the asteroid belt which runs around Dubrillion. Used as a test sight for new asteroid mining operations. Also the home of one of the most dangerous, and prestigious, tests of piloting skills in the galaxy:

Running the Belt

The man sat in the modified tie fighter, familiarizing himself with the controls. Patiently, he waited for the doors to open and release him to the vacuum of space.

"All ready?" The voice Lando Calrissian came through his comset.

"Waiting," he answered.

"Go."

Expertly, he swooped out of the hanger and into the flow of asteroids.

The pilot hit the belt running. Only one other pilot had ever done that in the history of the game and not gotten whipped out right away. She currently occupied the top space on the list.

"He won't beat her," One of the technicians of the _Belt Runner II _said. "No one has even beat that other jedi, the guy in second place. She's got a fourteen minute lead on him. He won't even come close."

Lando shrugged. "The betting pool is open if you wish to cast your money in." He told the technicians.

"What's the point?" Another technician asked. "He hasn't got a chance."

Lando smiled, and privately placed his own bets on the future standing of the current pilot where none of his crew could see them.

The pilot in question was locked in concentration. The asteroids flew wildly around him. He avoided them smoothly, always two moves ahead in the game. He had not even glanced at his timer once since he entered the belt. He was too concentrated on flying to care about it.

With apparent ease, he dodged around the giant rocks, always moving ahead like a fish swimming upstream.

"He's good," the technician said in surprise.

Lando nodded.

"Still, not good enough," the other technician said confidently.

The pilot was dodging and wheeling through the asteroids as if this was what he had been doing since he was born. He was smiling as he swooped over a giant one to immediately rush down again and squeeze between two rocks with two meters to spare. If he had been a less controlled person, he might have been laughing with the exhilaration that the flight was giving him.

The technicians, and Lando, were too engrossed in the spectacle to comment anymore.

The pilot veered left of an asteroid and almost immediately had to veer left again to dodge one that had been hidden from his line of sight. The put him off the course he had plotted for himself. It wasn't the worst thing that would happen, he wasn't about to crash, but it wasn't the optimum position to be in.

He gave himself a little while longer before he was thrown out of the field.

He was right. Very soon he found himself in a position where he was at an impassable pattern. Only now did he look at the clock which had timed his flight.

He grinned.

She had nothing better to do, so she went to Dubrillion. Partly, it was because she had been invited there. Partly, it was because she wanted to run the Belt again (for practice). Mostly, it was because she wanted to smile smugly at all the attempts to knock here down on the score list.

She noticed distantly that a pilot was in the belt as she arrived. She watched him in a detached sort of manner as she prepared to land. He was good, she noted, but she doubted he was good enough.

She knew exactly where Lando would be when she landed: _Belt Runner_. It was a good thing that this was exactly where she wanted to go. She whistled cheerfully as she headed straight for the command center.

"Hi Lando."

Lando looked up from the rerun of the previous flight he was watching to see Jania Solo standing in the doorway. He had completely forgotten she was arriving today, so engrossed had he been with the holovid.

Jania noted the detached manner. "What's so fascinating?" She asked.

Lando gestured at the holovid. "See for yourself."

Curious, Jania looked. She recognized the flying style from somewhere, though she couldn't quite place it. "This is the guy who was in the belt as I was coming in, right?" She asked.

Lando nodded.

"Showing off a bit, isn't he?" She asked, noting a particularly fancy and difficult pass the pilot made when he could have done something much simpler.

Lando began to grin slyly. "I'm not at all surprised, now that I think about it."

Jania looked up questioningly at him. The tone of his voice made her suspect that there was something he was not telling her. Lando just grinned even wider and shook his head.

She turned back to the holovid, trying to place where she had seen this distinct flying style before. She frowned.

Then the pilot did something so completely unexpected that she forgot all about placing the flight patterns: He simply left the belt. No asteroid pushed him out. There was no spin as he left. He just pulled out smoothly and elegantly.

"Why'd he do that?" She asked. "He could have gone on for… oh." Lando was pointing out that the pilot had nearly reached a pattern which would send him spinning out anyways.

"Still, he could have stayed in and gotten a few extra seconds, maybe minutes if he was clever," Jania said. "Why'd he pull out?"

"Like you said, he's showing off," Lando said. "He had reached a time he was happy with, and he wanted to end it on his terms."

She shook her head at the apparent stupidity of the pilot. "A few extra seconds could have made all the difference over Kyp. Speaking of which, is he still in second place?"

Lando only looked more amused. "No. He's been demoted to third."

"Really?" Jania was surprised. "Whoever beat him must have been pretty good. I mean, he's a fair…" She trailed off in shock.

She had finally turned to look at the new arrangement of the scoreboard.

The pilot had almost reached his quarters when a wave of anger, exasperation, and irritation mixed with admiration, challenge, and love crashed over him: a wave so focused on him, that even though he was not sensitive to the force he was able to feel it and tell who it was from. He smiled.

Hotshot Solo, Sword of the Jedi, Squadron Leader, and Trickster Goddess she may be, but no one, not even Jania Solo, was a better pilot than Jagged Fel.


End file.
